Police have issued a warrant for the arrest of the captain of the Sewol, the South Korea ferry that capsized this week while carrying nearly 500 people.

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A ship captain arrested after fleeing a sinking vessel. Scores of passengers trapped in their rooms after being told to stay put, with many now feared dead. A clueless crew hampered by lack of safety drills and emergency preparation.

No, this not the Costa Concordia, the giant cruise ship that sank off the Italian coast in 2012 after hitting a reef. But some of the things that went wrong there have appeared again in the disaster that just happened with the Sewol. The South Korean ferry was carrying 475 people, many of them teenage students, when it capsized and sank earlier this week en route from Incheon to the resort island of Jeju. As of Friday morning, the official death toll from the accident was 28. But with 268 still missing, the final count was expected to be far greater. So far, 179 of those aboard have been reported saved.

As heavy rain impeded rescue attempts by divers, authorities dispatched three huge sea cranes to the site to lift the nearly 7000-ton ship, which is now mostly submerged in depths estimated at around 100 feet. Simultaneously, rescuers are pumping air into the ship to expand the existing air pockets inside and to aid in the refloating effort.

On Friday, South Korean prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for the 69-year-old captain, identified as Lee Joon-seok. He was among the few who fled the ship in the only one of the 46 lifeboats on the ship to be deployed. As such, he seems destined to be this story's answer to Costa Concordia captain Francesco Schettino, who was arrested and tried for recklessly steering the ship too close to the coast of Giglio island—32 were killed in that accident. In the case of the Sewol, the captain reportedly wasn't even at his post at the time of the accident. Rather, a junior officer was at the helm of what's now expected to the be the worst maritime disaster in South Korea's post-war history.

What caused the massive ferry to capsize? There were few answers coming from Chonghaejin Marine Company, operator of the Sewol, which was built by a Japanese shipyard in 1994. Some speculated that the vessel may have been slightly off course, but experts said that the vessel was in established shipping lanes with few known hazards like the rocks that doomed Costa Concordia.

However, like many large ferries around the world, the Sewol operated as a hybrid passenger-cargo ship. On this particular trip it was carrying more than 100 cars and trucks, along with a sizable shipment of cargo containers strapped onto the deck. Some reports suggested that containers came loose after the ship made a sharp turn unexpectedly, causing the weight to shift to one side.

Whatever the cause, ship safety experts argued that many more lives could have been saved if the crew had responded more quickly, and expressed shock at the apparent incompetence displayed by those manning the ferry.

John Konrad, a former ship captain who runs the gCaptain maritime blog, says it is "nearly impossible" to find a reasonable explanation for what happened. "The crew failed in their responsibility to safely evacuate the passengers on board, and frankly, made decisions that doomed many."

Among those decisions were repeated announcements to the passengers to stay inside, even as conditions deteriorated during the two hours that passed as the ship sank. Passengers could have been evacuated during that time. Those who did escape later told reporters that they'd ignored the crew's instructions and jumped off the side of the ship into the frigid waters. They also said that there were no safety drills conducted at any time during the trip, nor were any emergency instructions given.

With so many people unaccounted for, the recovery operation was expected to move into high gear over the weekend. Whether the aftermath will prompt a hard look at shipboard safety measures is another question: Much as the Concordia tragedy prompted needed changes in emergency and evacuation drills for cruise ships, many believe it's time for a new look at safety aboard ferries, especially those mingling large numbers of people with cargo. In fact, the National Transportation Safety Board has long warned about lax procedures on passenger vessels. Just last month, the agency convened a two-day confab on cruise ship safety. This year it also added improved passenger vessel safety to its 10 Most Wanted list of recommendations, citing accidents such as the fatal crash of the Staten Island Ferry in 2003 and the Block Island ferry's collision with another vessel in 2008.

"It is critical to increase public and media attention on passenger ship safety," the NTSB said in calling for tighter regulations. Although accidents on passenger vessels are relatively rare, " a catastrophic event would place lives at risk," the agency said—a warning that now seems like an understatement in the wake of the Sewol disaster.